John Calipari Is Either The Best Or Worst Thing To Happen To College Basketball

The top-ranked college basketball team in the nation and the favorite to win the NCAA Tournament is stacked with underclassmen who will most likely be playing in the NBA next season. They are coached by a $4 million man who recruited, then molded these players--many of them mere teenagers--into a great team.

And that man, of course, is Kentucky Wildcats head coach, John Calipari, who is, simultaneously, one of the most loathed and loved coaches in the country.

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We’ll start with the loathing.

First and perhaps foremost is the fact that Calipari, 53, is constantly followed by the shadow of basketball programs left wrecked in his wake. He took UMass to the Final Four in 1996. But that accomplishment was later vacated by the NCAA when star player, Marcus Camby, was discovered to have taken money from an agent. By the time that judgment was handed down, Calipari was gone from UMass, the new coach of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets.

In 2000, he went to the University of Memphis. His aggressive recruiting tactics immediately rubbed people the wrong way. In 2001 he landed prize recruit Dajuan Wagner in part by hiring his father, Milt, as operations director for the team. Milt would stay on for four years after his son left but, still, folks blanched.

Calipari would lead the Memphis Tigers to the Final Four, in 2008, where they came within a near-miracle last-second three-point shot by Kansas’ Mario Chalmers of winning the title. But, as it turned out, it wouldn’t have mattered if Chalmers shot had clanged off the rim. After the game, star Memphis point guard, Derrick Rose, was found to have had someone else take his SAT for him was investigated for irregularities in his high school grades, and was alleged to have had someone else take his SAT exam. Memphis’ Final Four appearance—and the entire season—was vacated by the NCAA. But by that time, Calipari was gone from Memphis, the new head coach at Kentucky.

Calipari was not implicated in either incident. But his reputation took a beating. Former coach, Bobby Knight, once blasted Calipari, saying: “Integrity is really lacking…You see we've got a coach at Kentucky who put two schools on probation and he's still coaching. I really don't understand that." The shadow remains.

And most recently, as the head coach at Kentucky, Calipari has become the poster coach for exploiting the NBA’s “one and done” rule, which stipulates that a player must be 19 and be at least one year removed from high school to join the league, and has essentially made the NCAA a one-year waystop for star players. Calipari has had seven underclassman chosen in the NBA draft in the last two years. He’ll likely add a few more this year, including star freshmen Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Detractors bemoan that he is making a mockery of the moniker “student-athlete.”

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But what about the love?

Start with the man. Calipari is unbelievably charismatic. For this story I did on him, which was written during his stint at Memphis, Calipari insisted that we have dinner in a local steak joint. He was dressed in a royal blue athletic sweat suit. When we arrived at the restaurant, he worked the room like a politician. He received visitors at the table during the entire meal, always with a smile on his face. A couple sitting nearby—whom he didn’t know—paid his bill. We sat at the table until well after midnight, drinking Cokes. He took time out to talk to anyone and everyone who came by.

That charisma is a big part of his success on the court. He is perhaps the best recruiter in college basketball. He sells recruits on the idea of the team being a family. He sells that idea to fans and boosters as well. “When you’re building a basketball program, you’re trying to create a love affair,” he told me.

He transforms basketball programs. In 1988, at age 29, he took over the beleaguered University of Massachusetts team, which had endured a decade of losing seasons. His first step was the recast the brand by shortening the logo to “UMass.” He went 10-18 in his first season, his only losing season as a college head coach. Then he reeled off seven straight winning seasons, capped by the Final Four appearance.

In 2000, the Memphis program was in similar trouble. The team was losing and hadn’t qualified for March Madness in four seasons. Its coach had been fired after fessing up to an affair with an undergraduate. The team’s graduation percentage was zero. Donations to the athletic program had virtually flatlined, at $2.5 million a year.

Calipari went to work. The team qualified for the NIT, then the NCAA Tournament. The graduation rate for seniors reached 79%. Donations to the athletic program rose 120%, to $5.6 million a year, thanks in large part to Calipari’s wooing of FedEx founder and CEO, Frederick W. Smith (who also set up a paid internship program at FedEx for Memphis players). The team made the Final Four.

Then came the Kentucky job. Calipari was brought in after Billy Gillispie’s two woeful seasons as the head coach. In three seasons, Calipari has compiled a 96-14 record. Revenues for the team are $24.4 million a year, the 5th-highest in college basketball. (Most of that money goes to non-revenue sports, like swimming, cross country and gymnastics.)

Calipari is undeniably a great coach, perhaps the best active one to have never won an NCAA title. For his services, he is highest-paid coach in college basketball, taking in the handsome sum of $4 million a year, which does not included ancillary benefits like membership to a country club.

And about those “one and done” players. Traditionalists might not like it, but Calipari continually points out that he is only playing by the rules (the rule is from the NBA, and in particular, from the NBA Players Association, which has been resisting any changes). Calipari claims to not even like the rule.

But he is against keeping his players in school for another year just to prove a point. As he recently toldUSA Today: “I cannot morally tell a young man that he should stay in school--in the interests of the school, the program or me --when it's in his best interests and his family's best interests to go reach his dreams. I couldn't tell (Bill) Gates, 'Do you know what you did to the integrity of your school by coming out and starting Microsoft?'”

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Calipari has what is considered the most talented team in the nation this year. The only knock? That his young team may not be prepared for the pressure of March Madness.

The one hole in his resume is a national title. If he wins it this year, will he bring on more love? Or more loathing?